1st salvos in Motel Caswell drug forfeiture trial

By Lisa Redmond, lredmond@lowellsun.com

Updated:
11/06/2012 06:35:28 AM EST

BOSTON -- In the federal government's fight to seize the Motel Caswell under drug-forfeiture laws, Assistant U.S Attorney Sonya Rao said the case is about "protecting the community against a dangerous property."

In her opening statement in the civil trial Monday in U.S. District Court, Rao described the Tewksbury motel as a place where "people go to distribute, buy and use illegal drugs."

While Rao does not accuse owner Russell Caswell or his family of committing any crimes, under the civil-forfeiture laws, Rao said, she will prove that Caswell either knew and was "willfully blind" to drug crimes or should have known drug activity was happening at his motel and should have taken reasonable steps to stop it.

But Institute for Justice attorney Lawrence Salzman, who represents Caswell, argued that Caswell has never been convicted of any crime and has never participated in any drug activity, yet he stands to lose his motel "all because of a small number of people involved in drug activity behind closed doors."

Caswell operated in "complete transparency," even cooperating with police by letting them use empty motel rooms for drug stings, Salzman said.

At the conclusion of opening statements on Monday, the lawyers, Caswell and the judge drove to Tewksbury for a site visit of the motel.

In the courtoom, Rao told Magistrate Judge Judith Dein that during the weeklong, jury-waived trial, the government will present testimony from current and former Tewksbury police officers, including the chief, who responded to 15 drug crimes at the motel between 1994 and 2008.

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In one case, police will testify about a body they found in one room. The person died of a drug overdose with the needle still stuck in his arm, Rao said. Drug arrests have also been made in the motel's rooms, the parking lot and one customer operated a meth lab out of one of the rooms, Rao said.

"There is a pattern of drug crimes in this motel," she said.

Rao told the judge that attorneys for Caswell will argue that the drug activity is an anomaly and that Caswell and his staff could not have known customers were engaging in drug activity. But drug arrests at the Caswell were often in the newspaper, on television or listed in Tewksbury police documents.

To protect himself, Caswell could have taken "reasonable steps," such as installing security cameras in a public place, hiring security guards and requiring proper identification from anyone who rents a room, but didn't, Rao said.

During his testimony Monday, retired Tewksbury police Lt. Dennis Peterson testified that he had plenty of suggestions on how to curb drug activity at the motel. But when asked by Salzman if he passed on any of those suggestions, Peterson testified he had a "vague memory" of mentioning those recommendations to one of the motel's desk clerks.

Peterson testified that after an arrest, he would notify the desk clerk on duty that someone had been arrested for drug activity at the motel. Peterson testified he had "no idea" if Caswell or his staff knew customers were selling drugs before arrests were made.

But Peterson testified he didn't trust Caswell because "someone on the property as much as him would have to have known what was going on."

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